Month: February 2013

Today I woke up at 7 am to the cheering for marathon runners who ran below my window.

Time keeps on flying, soon it will be summer and hot (can’t wait) and I will have to figure out just how much I love Hong Kong, what I want to do with my life, etc. small stuff. But, before that I can enjoy the few pictures I have remembered to take, and try to remember as much as possible of all the things I’ve seen, done, experienced and encountered here. It seems like there is so much I can’t even recall half of it all!

Flashy flush.

This week too was full of good stuff (other than the one pictured above)!

Out to after-work exercise!

Being around athletes, I feel slightly pressured to be active. Which is a good thing, except that I get so much energy that I can’t sleep. Victoria park is nice and peaceful in the evenings, unlike during the weekends!

Fruit salad á la chaga and cocoa nibs

I started a habit of eating self-made fruit salad pretty much every day, pretty much from any fruit I happen to have. So far, so good. This week we also made maca pancakes. With a lot of honey they were pretty good!

Different view of Hong Kong

I went hiking away from all the “action”, which was pretty relaxing. Dragon’s Back was rather crowded, but it was still pretty cool!

Dragon’s Back, one of the most popular trails in HK

There are interesting and challenging things coming my way, I can feel it. I hope I will be able to keep on going faster and faster, and to improve myself as much as needed. I can already tell that it is windy on the top!

Time in Hong Kong, well, despite being a huge clichè, it flies. My weekdays I spend happy in our Happy Valley office, doing various tasks for Four Sigma Foods. My title is marketing assistant, which suits me pretty well.

Guess how many sachets it took for the perfect shot…

From pretending to do sports to behind the camera.

My great moment as a photographer

The photo shoot last week was for our upcoming product catalogue, which my actual task was to write the texts for.
Besides gulping down the Instant drinks and writing to FSF blog about interesting people and herbs, I have been able to try different working methods, and most of all, learn something new every day. We’ve had workshops about self-leadership and self-development, and there’s more to come! Unless my brain explodes from all the new things and good stuff around me, I bet this trainee time will be something quite spectacular.

Life is pretty sweet over here in Hong Kong, and the weather forecast for today is mild 27C! Oh Finland, I miss your snow not.

The recipe for the divine Instant fruit dessert/snack is so ridiculously easy and modifiable that I don’t know if it can even be called a recipe. Aaaanyways, here goes:

Mix coconut cream with your favorite fruits, such as banana, mango, apples or pear. If you want to take the treat up a notch, add some nuts, seeds, toasted coconut flakes, cocoa nibs or whatever you fancy. Finish it all off with basically any of the Instants, I used Lion’s Mane (previously known as Brainpower) which is specially good for your cognition and concentration. Mmmm.

Once again, long(ish) time, no post – sorry about that. After the Chinese New Year (which kept the banks and such closed up until Valentine’s Day!) I have been as busy as always with work and wandering around. This week I had divine home-made raw chocolate at the office, strong happy hour margaritas in our neighborhood, and Chinese style “laskiaispulla” (shrove bun).

Valentine’s day (and chocolate week) at the office

I visited Andy Warhol exhibition in the Museum of Art. Ridiculously cheap (less than 2€!), and 2 hour tour. What I learned: Warhol had 25 cats, all of them named Sam. Talk about equality!

When taken out of it’s context, anything can be art

Today I got a flashback of the New York atmosphere I have been missing: East Island Market.

(Pretty much) everything hand-made, organic and more or less fresh!

Nice, quiet area with live music, young entrepreneurs and happy people, what a better way to spend a Sunday morning.

Something natural in the concrete jungle

I know what I will do on lazy Sundays after this. The good thing is, that I can walk home via a mountain road. A bit of exercise to balance out the treats!

This year I am lucky to have experienced New Year’s celebrations twice – both of them completely different than anything I’ve experienced before! In Japan I missed the annual fireworks, but today my “loss” was made up in the Hong Kong’s Chinese New Years fireworks spectacle. Yesterday I, along with probably few million others, got to witness the New Year’s parade, and the day before that I was smushed in the crowds in Victoria Park’s market.

Enthusiastic shoppers in Victoria park

The Victoria Park (flower) market resembled the Finnish Vappu (mayday) market quite a lot, except that here you couldn’t really see any of the stalls since there was so many people. The flowers and fruit trees were beautiful, but pretty much everything else on sale was carnival crap. I am glad to have stumbled upon the market on my morning “jog” (which turned to walking and eating in the market area).

The (non-Chinese) carnival spirit

The Parade in Tsim Sha Tsui was rather popular, to say the least. We were there few hours early, and the streets were already packed. I have to say, that the parade was a slight disappointment, specially after such a long wait. It was interesting, and definitely worth it, but not that “Chinese” since half of the groups were from somewhere else.

Hong Kong Disneyland partying

The parade had some interesting costumes and talented performances, so it was nice to see. However, the subway ride afterwards was a “bit” hectic and cramped. It is funny how much I have been in crowds these past few days, although most of the shops and restaurants have been closed and the streets have seemed almost deserted. Almost!

Blasting in the air for 30 mins

Today’s fireworks were spectacular, and definitely made up for the ones I missed on our new year. I am not that familiar with the Chinese traditional customs, but I doubt Gagnam style as background music for fireworks has not been that common for celebrations. I wish I knew half as much about the Chinese New Year’s traditions as I know about the Japanese oshougatsu, but this weekend was interesting as it was, everyone was happy and festive and we got an extra day off! Looking forward to the next festival, which seems to be in few weeks!

Oh, Hong Kong. So different from Japan, though there are many things that are similar. I find the same products, sushi, and some of the same kanji, but other than that everything seems very different. So far I have pretty much been working every day, and then in the evenings wander around and fall to my bed. So much to see, but also so much time!

Quiet street in the afternoon

It seems odd to compare Hong Kong with Japan, since they both have their own characteristics. This place seems more international, yet also very traditional Chinese at the same time. So far, I have got my home-fix from Ikea, but also seen pig faces on dirty concrete ground, turtles piled in a cage with frogs, and the various Chinese medicine shops that sell bunch of smelly stuff.

Geese drying up on the street

Every day is an adventure, and I believe there will be new things to discover after few months. It definitely is an advantage, that I am accustomed to the Asian cultures before coming here, since now I know most (well, at least some) of the weird foods. My goal here is to eat as much fruits and study as much about mushrooms as possible, since it seems like they are pretty big deal here (and of course FSF plays a role in that…today I tasted shiitake, originated from Oita! So, I guess I can’t leave Beppu behind.

This could be Japan!

Now that the Chinese New Year’s is upon us, I believe that will give me something to write about. At some point I will also reveal you the Paul Yee Mansion penthouse – and of course some of the things I experience with the shrooms and Four Sigma Foods.